DTF: Drinking task force considered

By Ellen Liu     2/10/11 6:00pm

Following the alcohol policy forum four weeks ago, Student Association representatives introduced a proposal at the SA meeting last Monday to create a committee called the "Drinking Task Force." This group's responsibilities include collecting student opinion on the current alcohol policy and suggesting possible improvements.Hanszen College Senator Spencer Boucher said that he, SA External Vice President Carl Nelson, Jones College Senator Steven Boswell and Will Rice College Senator Renee Dudley wrote the proposal after seeing how successful the SA's alcohol forum was because they wanted to move forward with the alcohol policy discussion while student awareness of the issue was high.

Boucher, a junior, said he and the others met at the following senators' meeting and discussed the next step after the forum. They decided that the best course of action would be forming a task force to investigate ideas raised at the forum and share them further with the student population through conversation with college presidents, chief justices and other student leaders.

According to Boucher, the team wanted the task force to approach the alcohol policy from both top-down and bottom-up perspectives, which involves consulting with both the administration and students about necessary changes. Dudley, a sophomore, added that the task force would ideally listen to all suggestions, meet with different groups of people and present their findings to the student body by March 14.

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"We would like the DTF to be a central hub that coordinates all of the incoming information and ideas," Dudley said. "A big point we are stressing is individual college responsibility and initiative; so, to be effective, we would like the colleges to have the same information and recommendations."

The SA team also considered the appropriate size of the group and opted to keep the membership small - only five students.

"We feel that adding too many voices to a conversation that is already so large and fragmented was not the spirit of our initiative," Boucher said. "Rather, our goal is to consolidate the various dialogues between RUPD, the administration, each of the colleges and the SA in an effort to face the issue as a unified front."

According to Boucher and Dudley, if the proposal is passed, the next step will be finding task force members. Boucher said that they would send applications involving a letter of interest and a resume to the entire student body and would encourage students from all backgrounds to apply. The SA Executive Committee would choose the final five members, subject to approval by the SA Senate.

Then, Boucher said the task force would begin discussions with colleges, RUPD, the administration and even the GSA, who, according to Boucher, expressed a keen interest in being a major advisory body to the committee and would be a valuable resource, because graduate students have experience with the alcohol polices of other universities.

When Boucher, Dudley and the others presented the task force proposal at the SA meeting, debate arose over some specific wording in the document. A motion was passed unanimously to change the phrase "culture of care" to "drinking culture" to more accurately reflect what the task force would investigate. Final voting on the proposal will occur next week.

Boucher said that it was important for the bill to be passed quickly in light of government changeovers and student awareness of the issue, though he also noted that revisions were still possible. Dudley said she had faith in her fellow SA representatives' desire to help student voices be heard and was confident that the proposal would be approved.

Boucher said the task force would have a difficult journey ahead, because it needed to find solutions on both a policy and individual level and gradually motivate students to change their habits.

"Changing culture is tough," Boucher said. "Nobody wants to change the way that they do things, but we have reached a seminal point in Rice history, and change needs to happen."

Dudley cited the need to represent all student opinions and an overemphasis of alcohol policy complaints rather than solutions as other possible challenges. Still, she said she believed the task force provided a good medium for students to express their opinions on the alcohol policy issue and to see action taken toward improvement.

Among the students who would like to see such changes made, Martel College freshman Naomi Wong said she supported the proposed task force because she believed that the current alcohol policy was very disorganized and uncertain. According to Wong, the administration needed to be more explicit about what the rules were rather than simply throwing around ambiguous catchphrases like "culture of care."

"Nobody is exactly sure what the alcohol policy is, except that they know that they're allowed to drink and most of the time, it's overlooked," Wong said. "Having some clear, defined rules that will be universal is going to be helpful."

Dudley said she was excited to continue working on this project and hoped to open it soon to the student body.

"This is, in a sense, my baby," Dudley said, "It was my senator project, and I would have to say that I could not be any happier with Rice students on this issue.

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